Three Ways of Dealing with Necessary Foreign Words

I’ve used quite a few German words in Potatoes in Spring. I haven’t translated them because I consider that they don’t translate exactly.

Interestingly, I’ve read two other books recently that are also set during World War II. Robert Mucahmore in The Escape has chosen to use footnotes. His stories are always extremely exciting and fast-paced.  Possibly showing the meaning of the words would have slowed the pace down too much.

Emma Craigie in Chocolate Cake with Hitler has chosen to translate her words literally into English, including all titles and place names. She says on page 202 that she does this “to give a sense of their meaning to Helga”.

I’ve chosen a different method in my novel. I’m influenced here by Caroline Lawrence and the way she introduces Latin words’ meanings by contextualising them the first time the reader meets them, providing a glossary in case the reader has forgotten the meaning when they meet the words subsequently and expanding even further on a web site.

I spent considerable time deciding which to do. As a fluent speaker of German, I find retaining the original German intensifies the atmosphere. As this a story of emotions, that seems appropriate.

Readers may find the German words a little more exotic. That in turn may give them a sharper sense of the conflict that Renate feels. Also, my protagonist is slightly older than Craigie’s so it’s possible the readers will be and may also have a little German. One of Muchamore’s main characters does speak German well, so understands much of what the German officials say to him.

I’m certain I’ve made the right decision this time. It will be interesting to see what the editors think.                          

Language in Historical Fiction

I shared a very early part of the novel with a crit group last night. I received some very helpful comments and the question about language came up again. We talked about my first chapter which introduces us to one of the main characters. It also contains a letter written by her to some of the other significant players. The narrative is fairly neutral though I think I may change the voice a little later. It feels a little young if this book is to be for key Stage 3. The letter, though, is in a 1940s’ tone and even retains some of the German feel about it. I know this is going to happen even more so with the later letters. However in the ordinary narrative I have more modern English. I normally believe it should be one or the other – either go completely modern or try and replicate the language of the time. I remember seeing two adaptations of the same Molière play within two weeks. One was a fairly literal translation, the second sought to provide the same level of entrainment to a 21st century audience as Molière’s original audience would have enjoyed. I slightly preferred the latter. Both used a very different tone, but at least the tone was consistent throughout each one. Somehow, though, in my novel I feel that the mix is working. I still feel that Caroline Lawrence has got it just right in the Roman mysteries and my text is not too different from hers. Time will tell, I guess. In the meantime, I guess I just need to get the novel down. I reckon I’m just about half way

The Power of Names

As I continue with my “Hani” strand, more and more German words are creeping in. Today I’ve used Vati, Mutti, Frau Gödde, Herr Gödde, Spätzle (gosh that’s not just German – it’s Swabian) Frau Lehrs, Doctor Kühn and Hausfrau, as well as, of course, a host of first names. Some of the words, like Hausfrau and Spätzle don’t quite translate. I hope I’ve shown the meaning by the way I’ve included them in the text. I may have to provide a glossary, or that could be put on the web site. I’ll probably revisit the work of Caroline Lawrence to get some ideas about this. I love the way she has done that for the Roman Mysteries. I think in the 1940s, and certainly in Germany, there was greater formality about how you addressed people. Hani would never have addressed Frau Lehrs as Clara, though in the scene I’ve written today, now that Hani is sixteen and already working as a housekeeper, she thinks of her as Clara Lehrs. She thinks about her parents mainly as Mutti and Vati but occasionally as her father or her mother. I’m also using Frau and Herr Gödde. I was discussing a similar example with a colleague yesterday, where a point of view character thinking of her parents as Mr and Mrs X would have been wrong. Here, though, it seems to work. It’s possibly because the text is a little exotic and these two expressions remind the reader that the people involved are German. This may all change in the editing, of course.